November 27, 2008 Issue
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Classified Chestnut Hill Local Don't Miss an Issue, Tell us what you see or Winner of Two |
Magarity Ford: much more lost than jobs
About 25 years ago, a three-year old girl in Texas was stuck in a deep well, and in took a few days to get her out. You may recall that the news coverage of the rescue attempt was of the “Martians Invade Philadelphia” variety. Front page newspaper headlines and leadoff pieces on the national TV news programs every day. All for one child who was apparently fine physically and mentally after the ordeal and today is a mother herself. At the same time, I believe there was a cyclone or tornado in Bangladesh that killed tens of thousands of people but received relatively scant news coverage in the U.S., certainly nothing to rival that of the girl in the well. An old, grizzled editor once explained to me the seemingly out-of-kilter coverage of one child versus the death of thousands this way: “It’s a lot easier to identify with and shed tears over one child with a name and a face than it is with a statistic. No matter how big that statistic may be, it’s still just a number, not a child named Suzy with big, sad blue eyes.” This thought occurred to me when I went in to Magarity Ford last Friday to leave our car off for the last time. It was due for State Inspection and an 80,000-mile checkup, and Magarity has announced it will be going out of business at the end of this month, as the Local reported on page one in the Nov. 13 issue. When I dropped off the car and saw the sad faces all around, it hit me that these workers were not statistics but individual people with families, bills to pay, groceries to buy, etc. They may not be three-year-old girls with big blue eyes, but they are suffering nonetheless. For example, Chuck Stemple, 49, is one of two “service advisors” at Magarity. Chuck, of East Norriton, started out as a mechanic for Downingtown Lincoln-Mercury and then Phillips Ford in Conshohocken, but in 1989, after five years of fixing cars, he came to Magarity Ford to work in the service department. Chuck remembers the exact day he started with Magarity — August 25, 1989 — and he has been a familiar, smiling face there for the last 19 years and three months. “I liked fixing cars,” he explained, “but I like working with people more. I can honestly say I am going to miss the people more than anything else — every single customer and employee. I thoroughly enjoy this job and am definitely going to find it hard to leave. “A customer called me yesterday and asked me if I wanted a free turkey. I said to him, ‘I’m not on the bread line yet. It’s not quite that bad,’ but that was really a very nice gesture. Just when you think that nobody cares, people come and do this type of thing.” Chuck, who said he has had no luck so far trying to find another job, has never been more on top of his game. Ironically, in fact, Ford has an employee incentive program that recognizes the region’s top producers annually, and last year Chuck was named the number one Ford service advisor in customer satisfaction (out of more than 200) throughout the Greater Philadelphia area. He was also number one in service department sales — batteries, tires, etc. Ironically, the person who finished number two in terms of customer satisfaction was the man who occupies the seat just a few feet from Chuck — his co-service advisor, Joe McGlade, who worked at Magarity for two years in the mid-’90s, then went to another dealership and then returned to Magarity, where he has been for the last four years. “Chuck has been here so long,” said Joe, “that as soon as he sees a customer, he knows right away what the person’s car is... “I really like the Chestnut Hill area,” said McGlade, 53, of Havertown. “I am just hoping that my record here will help me in the scheme of things. The problem is that it takes a long time to build up a rapport with customers, as Chuck has, since you only see most of them twice a year ... I’ve been trying to get my name out there with web sites that deal with jobs in this industry.” According to Chuck, it would be hard to find a dealership that provides better service than Magarity. “We have a great team of mechanics,” he said. “We have free loaner cars, and we can get you an Enterprise Rent-a-Car in no time at all. It’s very convenient here. You can leave your car off, take the train to center city, and your car will be ready when you return.” On a personal note, I have to say that we purchased several cars at Magarity Ford and even purchased cars at Koelle-Greenwood Ford, which occupied the building prior to 20 years ago. I bought my first car in 1965 from Reedman in lower Bucks County, which at that time had a bigger used car inventory than any other dealer in Pennsylvania. That first car was a jazzy 1955 red Ford convertible that cost $300 plus $15 tax. I had just gotten off active duty in the Air Force, and the $315 was almost all the money I had in the world. From that moment on through the next few cars, I had nothing but problems which made both me and the cars sick. It seemed as if I had a flat tire, dead battery, leaking radiator, failed carburetor, etc., almost every other day and that most of my majestic salary seemed to go to alleged car repairs. (I was hired in 1967 as a reporter for the Philadelphia Tribune and was paid $80 weekly before taxes, $69 after taxes, so I was in no position to pay for the non-stop car parts and labor.) I mention my lugubrious history with used cars merely to point out how much I appreciate having a reliable car and actually being able to trust that a mechanic is not going to rip me off. It’s a feeling of satisfaction that one cannot fully appreciate without having experienced “lemons” and incompetent and/or dishonest mechanics. On the other hand, our experience with Magarity Ford has been the exact opposite — competent, reliable mechanics and an honest, trustworthy service staff. To say that we will miss them would be a gross understatement. There have even been occasions when Chuck made a minor repair himself on the spot, just charged a few dollars for the part and sent me on my way. When I picked up my car from Magarity last Friday for the last time, I noticed that at the bottom of the bill was a notice which read: “It is with great sadness we have to announce we are closing our doors after just over 20 years due to the poor economic conditions and Ford’s scaling back of the total dealers in the immediate area. Thanks, as always, for all your support, and we will still be at Magarity Chevrolet in Flourtown.”
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